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The Hotspur
The Hotspur was a British boys' paper published by D. C. Thomson & Co. From 1933 to 1959, it was a boys' story paperboys' story paper; it was relaunched as a comic in 1959, initially called the New Hotspur, and ceased publication in January 1981. The original Hotspur The Hotspur was launched on 2 September 1933Vic Whittle, British Comics. as a story paper, the last of the 'Big Five'.Joseph McAleer, Popular Reading and Publishing in Britain 1914–1950, Oxford: Clarendon, 1992, ISBN 0-19-820329-2, p. 168. The first issue came with a black mask as a free gift''British Book News'' 1979, p. 296.Winter 2004 Market Report, Compalcomics. and contained an offer for an electric shock machine: It's a great prize, absolutely harmless and will give hours of fun. Just watch your pal's face when you give him his first electric shock!McAleer, p. 179. Thomson's 'Big Five' papers were extremely successful; the name was used by both readers and the industry.McAleer, p. 168. In addition to The Hotspur they were Adventure, The Rover, The Wizard and The Skipper.Roger Sabin, Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art, London: Phaidon, 1996, ISBN 0-7148-3008-9, p. 44: "These papers in the 1920s and 1930s were dominated by the 'Big 5'. In 1939 the company advertised combined weekly sales of over a million for the group; the first issue of The Hotspur sold over 350,000 copies.McAleer, p. 172, note 18; p, 172, Fig. 6.1. The Hotspur specialised in school stories;William Oliver Guillemont Lofts and Derek John Adley, The Men Behind Boys' Fiction, London: Howard Baker, 1970, ISBN 0-09-304770-3, p. 9. its Red Circle School stories replaced the public school stories in The Gem and The Magnet as reader favourites.McAleer, p. 169.Jeffrey Richards, Happiest Days: The Public Schools in English Fiction, Manchester University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-7190-1879-X, p. 289: "In its heyday The Magnet had a weekly press run in excess of 200,000. By 1930 it had fallen to 120,000 as a result of the direct competition of D. C. Thomson papers. This became particularly serious in 1933 with the launch of The Hotspur and the appearance of Red Circle, a tougher, more rambustious and more up-to-date public school than Greyfriars . . . which wooed schoolboy readers away. . . . By 1940 the Magnet's circulation was down to 41,660 while Gem had by 1939 fallen to 15,800 copies a week". Like other British children's publications, The Hotspur was published weekly, except for the Second World War and its aftermath, when as a result of paper rationing it published fortnightly,McAleer, p. 62. alternating with The Wizard.Hotspur at 26pigs.com. The original Hotspur story paper published 1197 issues, the last on 17 October 1959. Notable characters and series * Red Circle School, a public school with pupils from all over the world.McAleer, p. 169.Dan O'Neill, "Wizard time to be a boy; Time to remember", South Wales Echo, September 17, 2001. * Bill Sampson, also known as The Wolf of Kabul, an agent of the British Intelligence Corps, first introduced in The Wizard, appeared in illustrated format in The Hotspur.Conroy, p. 158. The New Hotspur It relaunched in comic format as the New Hotspur''Redesigned by its postwar editor, Jack Mackersie; McAleer, p. 163, note 3. on 24 October 1959, a week after the original series ceased publication, and ran for another 1110 issues until being incorporated into ''The Victor on 24 January 1981.Vic Whittle, Hotspur Page at British Comics.Kevin Carpenter, Penny Dreadfuls and Comics: English Periodicals for Children from Victorian Times to the Present Day: a loan exhibition from the Library of Oldenburg University, West Germany at the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, 2 June-2 October 1983, London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1983, ISBN 0-905209-47-8, n.p.. The new format contained comic strips as opposed to the old text story format. The word "new" in the title was dropped with issue #174."Hotspur", Albion British Comics Database There had been several mergers during the 1970s: with The Hornet in 1976, and with The Crunch in 1980. In January 1981 The Hotspur finally merged with The Victor. Strips included: *Coral Island *Jonny Jett *King Cobra, journalist Bill King transforms into the UK's very own high-tech superhero. Drawn by Ron Smith. *Spring Heeled Jack * Union Jack Jackson, a British Royal Marine serving with the US Marine Corps in the Pacific campaign during World War II, later in Warlord.Mike Conroy, War Stories: A Graphic History, New York: Ilex/Harper, 2009, ISBN 978-0-06-173112-9, p. 116 *X-Bow References External links * The Hotspur at the Grand Comics Database * "Japers of the Red Circle", the Red Circle School story from The Hotspur issue number 1, at Vic Whittle's British Comics site Category:DC Thomson Comics titles Category:Defunct British comics Category:British boys' story papers Category:Comics anthologies Category:1933 establishments in the United Kingdom Category:1981 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Category:Publications established in 1933 Category:Publications disestablished in 1981 Category:DC Thomson titles Category:Weekly Category:Anthologies Category:Adventure Category:Story papers launched in 1933 Category:Comics launched in 1959